As this year comes to a
close, let me take this opportunity to wish you and yours a wonderful
holiday season and a healthy and happy new year. I also want to thank
you for the ongoing help that you have given me, and for your efforts in
the many struggles that we have waged together. Today, I ask for your
continued support.

I am more than aware
that, in the current political climate, many people feel disillusioned
about the future. That is completely understandable. We have just had a
midterm election in which 63 percent of the people didn't vote, some
very reactionary candidates won election and Republicans are taking
control of the U.S. Senate. But, as I have said many times, despair is
not an option - not if you have kids or grandchildren and want a decent
future for them, not if you love this country and understand its
potential to lead the world in so many ways.

The struggle for
economic and social justice, for environmental sanity and world peace
must not be considered an option for us, it is a necessity that must be carried forward. It's what we must do. The future of this country and, in fact, the future of our planet depend upon that.

Please don't forget.
Real change does not occur without struggle, and real change does not
happen overnight. As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us; "The arc of
the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Incredibly
brave people, for centuries, have put their lives on the line, died and
suffered, for a more just economic and political system - and their
efforts resulted, over time, in huge and almost unthinkable victories.

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Fifty years ago, given
the history of this country, very few people would have believed that in
2008 an African American could have been elected President of the
United States, and then re-elected in 2012. But it happened.

Forty years ago, when
only a handful of women held important political positions and most
girls never considered the possibility of doing "man's work," very few
people would have believed that there would be states in this country
where all the major elected officials would be women, and that millions
of women would now be working at jobs that women never held before. But
it happened.

Thirty years ago, when
children born with disabilities were hidden by their parents or
institutionalized, very few people would have believed that kids with
disabilities would be mainstreamed into public school classrooms all
across this country, and that there would be strong laws prohibiting
discrimination against disabled Americans. But it happened.

Twenty years ago, when
right-wing candidates won elections by attacking gay rights, very few
people would have believed that by 2014 gay marriage would be legal in
conservative states, and that there would be openly gay elected
officials in almost every area of public life. But it happened.

My point is simple.
Change happens. It happens in ways that we don't fully understand, and
it happens in a timeline that few can predict. But one thing we do
understand is that when millions of people stand together and demand it,
positive and progressive change can and does happen. We must never
give up.

As I reflect upon this coming year, a number of thoughts come to mind:

First and foremost,
against an enormous amount of corporate media noise and distraction, it
is imperative that we be loud and clear in continuing the fight for our
progressive vision. We have got to stay focused on the most important
issues facing the American people.

Yes. We
make no apologies in stating that the great moral, economic and
political issue of our time is the growing level of income and wealth
inequality in our country. It is a disgrace to everything this country
is supposed to stand for when the top one-tenth of one percent own
almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and when one family (the
Waltons) owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent. No. The economy
is not sustainable when the middle class continues to disappear and when
95 percent of all new income generated since the Wall Street crash goes
to the top one percent.

Bernie Sanders is the independent U.S. Senator from Vermont. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. He is a member of the Senate's Budget, Veterans, Environment, Energy, and H.E.L.P. (Health, Education, (more...)